UTXO Fee Calculator

Your Bitcoin Stack
Is Fragmented.

Every time you buy bitcoin and withdraw to self-custody with a new address, you receive a UTXOUTXOUnspent Transaction Output. Every bitcoin purchase lands in your wallet as a separate "coin.". Many small purchases = many UTXOs = high consolidation fees.

Accumulate enough of them and consolidatingConsolidationSpending many small UTXOs in a single transaction to create one larger one. Miners charge fees based on the data size, so many inputs = high fees. your stack can cost hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars in fees. The Blockstream app solves this by letting you stack on Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC), Bitcoin's low-fee settlement sidechain, then swap to mainchain in one move when the time is right.
Estimate your exposure below.

Liquid Network Powered by the Liquid Network
01 / Calculator
utxo-fee-calculator · P2WPKH (Native SegWit)
Defaults loaded. Edit to match your setup.
Address Type
Check live: Blockstream Explorer
Converts fee costs to dollar amounts
UTXOs Created 52
Without Liquid
$184
in consolidation fees
With Liquid
$10
total swap fees
Estimated Savings $174
Enter to Get
Your Results
Address type
DCA amount
Fee rate
BTC price
UTXOs Created —

⚠ Dust Alert: At this fee rate, your deposit falls below the economic spend threshold. . These UTXOs cost more to move than they're worth.

Comparing what you'd pay to merge your deposits today vs. accumulating on Liquid and swapping once.
Without Liquid
—
in consolidation fees
% of stack lost—
UTXOs to consolidate—
Transaction size—
With Liquid
—
total swap fees
% of stack used—
Swaps per cycle2 (0.25% + 0.1%)
On-chain broadcast fee—
Consolidation cycles (est. quarterly)—
On-chain UTXOs—
Estimated Savings
Bitcoin kept in your stack
—
Dust Threshold Fee Rate Your deposit costs more to move than it's worth above this fee rate.
—
—
    Download Blockstream app
    How It's Calculated
    Without Liquid
    UTXOs to consolidate —
    Transaction size —
    Dust threshold —
    With Liquid
    Consolidation cycles 4× / year
    Lightning → Liquid 0.25% per swap
    Liquid → mainchain 0.1% per swap
    Dust cost by address type at — sat/vB
    Legacy (P2PKH) —
    Native SegWit (P2WPKH) —
    Taproot (P2TR) —
    Transaction Size Constants (vBytes)

    All input and output sizes are derived from the Bitcoin weight unit specification. Each byte of witness data counts as 1 weight unit; all other bytes count as 4. Divide total weight units by 4 to get virtual bytes (vB).

    Address TypeInputOutput1-in spend
    P2PKH Legacy148 vB34 vB192 vB
    P2WPKH SegWit68 vB31 vB109.5 vB
    P2TR Taproot57.5 vB43 vB111 vB
    Primary reference: Bitcoin Optech interactive transaction size calculator, the most comprehensive per-field vByte breakdown available. bitcoinops.org/en/tools/calc-size/ ↗
    Weight unit specification: Bitcoin Wiki formal definition of weight units, vBytes, and the segwit witness discount. en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weight_units ↗
    Per-type breakdown: learnmeabitcoin.com byte-level transaction maps for P2PKH, P2WPKH, and P2TR. learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/transaction/size/ ↗
    P2TR output size note: Taproot inputs are cheaper to spend (57.5 vB vs 68 vB for SegWit) but outputs are larger (43 vB vs 31 vB). Analysis by Bitcoin Core developer Murch. murch.one/posts/single-sig-output-types/ ↗
    Dust Threshold Formula
    Economic dust definition: A UTXO is unspendable when its value in sats is less than the fee required to spend it. Threshold (sats) = fee rate × single-input spend size (vB). bitcoin.stackexchange.com · "What is meant by bitcoin dust?" ↗
    Bitcoin Core dust limit: Core enforces a separate policy limit (~546 sats for P2PKH). Our calculator uses the economic threshold, which is more conservative and directly fee-rate-dependent. github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin · policy.cpp ↗
    Historical Fee Peaks
    April 2024, 1,805 sat/vB peak: Driven by the Bitcoin Runes protocol launch coinciding with the halving block.
    2023 Ordinals spike, ~300 sat/vB: Ordinals inscription demand drove sustained high-fee periods throughout 2023. blockstream.info · Blockstream Explorer ↗
    Liquid Swap Assumptions
    Swap fees per consolidation cycle: Each cycle involves two swap legs via Boltz infrastructure: Lightning → Liquid (inbound, 0.25%) and Liquid → mainchain (outbound, 0.1%), plus one on-chain broadcast fee. Total swap cost per cycle = 0.35% of amount + on-chain tx fee. Verify current fees in-app. blog.blockstream.com · Lightning + Liquid swaps ↗
    Quarterly swap cadence: An illustrative assumption (4×/year) to model periodic consolidation. Actual optimal frequency depends on your balance, fee environment, and risk tolerance. docs.liquid.net ↗
    All calculations assume single-signature key-path spends with compressed public keys. Multisig, script-path spends, and non-standard wallet configurations will produce different sizes. This calculator is for educational purposes. Actual fees depend on your wallet implementation, UTXO selection algorithm, and network conditions at time of broadcast. The consolidation model assumes a single transaction spending all accumulated UTXOs; consolidating in smaller batches during low-fee windows may be more practical and is equally valid.
    02 / Dust Thresholds

    When Does Your Bitcoin
    Become Uneconomical to Spend?DustA UTXO is "dust" when the fee to spend it exceeds its value. The bitcoin is still in your wallet — visible but too costly to move at that fee rate.

    Economic dust threshold by fee rate · P2WPKH (Native SegWit)

    Fee Rate (sat/vB)Dust BelowAt $60K BTCAt $100K BTCAt $250K BTCAt $500K BTC

    What is dust? A UTXO becomes uneconomical to spend when the fee required to spend it exceeds its value. The Bitcoin remains visible in your wallet but isn't worth moving at that fee rate. If fees fall, it becomes spendable again.

    03 / The Price Paradox

    Higher Bitcoin Price. Worse UTXO Problem.

    Fixed-dollar DCA buys fewer sats as price rises, but fees stay priced in sats.

    Your $100 weekly DCA buys 100,000 sats at $100K BTC. At $1M BTC, that same $100 buys just 10,000 sats. But the fee to spend a UTXO is priced in sats, so the minimum viable UTXO size in dollar terms keeps rising as Bitcoin appreciates. The UTXO problem doesn't resolve as Bitcoin succeeds. It compounds.

    Enter your DCA amount and fee rate to see which BTC price scenarios turn your deposits into dust.
    The window to fix your UTXO set is open now. It narrows as Bitcoin's price rises.
    04 / The Solution

    Stack on Liquid. Consolidate When Smart.

    Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC) offers fast, low-fee transactions. Developed by Blockstream.

    01 /
    Stack on Liquid
    Direct your DCA withdrawals to a Liquid Bitcoin address. Low fees. No UTXO fragmentation. Your balance accumulates without friction.
    02 /
    Let It Accumulate
    Your Liquid balance grows over weeks and months. Same self-custody. One consolidated balance instead of dozens of fragmented UTXOs.
    03 /
    Swap When Optimal
    When your balance is meaningful and mainchain fees are low, swap to on-chain in one atomic move. One consolidated UTXO.
    How funds move in the Blockstream app
    ⚡
    Lightning
    Free DCA withdrawals
    0.25% swap fee
    Liquid Network
    Liquid
    Accumulate here. No fragmentation.
    0.1% swap fee
    + 1 on-chain fee
    ₿
    Mainchain
    One consolidated UTXO when ready

    About Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC): Liquid is a Bitcoin sidechain developed by Blockstream. LBTC is backed 1:1 by BTC held in a multi-signature federation. Transactions settle in ~2 minutes with low fees. The Blockstream app handles Lightning, Liquid, and on-chain Bitcoin, including atomic cross-chain swaps between all three layers, hardware-secured with Jade.

    Stack Smarter with the Blockstream App.

    Atomic cross-chain swaps between Lightning, Liquid, and on-chain Bitcoin. Hardware-secured with Jade.
    Available on iOS, Android, and Desktop.

    Download Now
    UTXO ↗
    Unspent Transaction Output. Every bitcoin purchase you make lands in your wallet as a discrete, separate amount, like a physical coin. One $50 buy and one $100 buy are two separate UTXOs, not one combined balance.
    sat/vB: Satoshis per Virtual Byte ↗
    The unit miners use to price transaction fees. A satoshi (sat) is 1/100,000,000th of a bitcoin. A virtual byte (vB) measures the data size of your transaction. More inputs = more vBytes = higher fee.
    Dust
    A UTXO becomes uneconomical to spend (or "dust") when the fee required to spend it is larger than the value it holds. The bitcoin is still in your wallet, visible but too costly to move at that fee rate, but if fees drop it becomes spendable again.
    Consolidation
    The process of combining many small UTXOs into one larger one by sending them all in a single transaction to yourself. Fees scale with the number of inputs, so consolidating during high-fee periods is very costly.
    Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC) ↗
    A Bitcoin sidechain built by Blockstream. LBTC is backed 1:1 by BTC. Transactions settle in ~2 minutes with near-zero fees. Ideal for accumulating between mainchain consolidations, with no UTXO fragmentation.
    DCA: Dollar-Cost Averaging
    Buying a fixed dollar amount of bitcoin at regular intervals regardless of price: weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Each purchase creates a new UTXO, which is why frequent small DCA buys can compound the fragmentation problem.
    Atomic Swap
    A trustless, instant exchange between two bitcoin layers (e.g. Lightning → Liquid, or Liquid → Mainchain) that either completes fully or not at all. No counterparty risk. The Blockstream app handles this automatically.
    Lightning Network ↗
    A payment layer built on top of Bitcoin that enables instant, near-free transactions by routing payments through off-chain channels. Many exchanges support Lightning withdrawals, making it a fast way to stack sats.
    Mainchain (On-Chain)
    The base Bitcoin blockchain, the original layer where UTXOs live and where full settlement finality occurs. Every confirmed on-chain transaction is recorded permanently and publicly on the Bitcoin ledger.